But three of those players – Moss, Fitzgerald and Edwards – came into the league as high first-round draft picks.

With the current holes on their roster, the Steelers can't afford to take another receiver in the first round.

So that means they would have to get lucky and find a guy like Colston later in the draft as New Orleans did in 2006 when they took him in the seventh round. But if it was that easy, it would happen every year.

Roethlisberger went a long way toward winning over his teammates in the locker room, saying all the right things and putting in extra time. But he put his foot in his mouth with his statement about wanting a big receiver as Hines Ward pointed out in the Post-Gazette.

"I don't know, whatever he says. I have no idea," Ward told the P-G. "To me, it's a rare combination of receivers out there who are good and tall. We won a Super Bowl, we didn't have a tall receiver then. I don't see Tom Brady caring about who's tall or not. He got (Moss) this year, but he did it before without him."

I'm sure Ward didn't mean it this way, but that could be construed as a shot at Roethlisberger. In other words, if you're a great quarterback, win with what you've got.

That's not what Ward was pointing out and Roethlisberger shouldn't take it that way.

But Roethlisberger has to realize that as a franchise quarterback, when he speaks, people listen. And in this case, they sometimes take offense.

It served no purpose for Roethlisberger to admit he'd like a big receiver. All he had to say is that he's happy with his current receivers, something he did time and again all season long.

He may feel different privately, but that's between Roethlisberger and head coach Mike Tomlin.